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Word for when proper nouns are whole phrases

English Language & Usage Asked on May 9, 2021

I’ve been trying to find a word to describe when things like people’s names and place names are whole phrases.
I’m not sure how creditable these are, but I’ve often seen names in literature like this — especially when used by groups like Native Americans or in fantasy contexts.

In Tui T. Sutherland’s book series Wings of Fire (specifically in the latest installment, The Dangerous Gift), there are multiple villages named like this: Where-the-Terns-Fly, Hamlet-That-Worships-the-Whales-Who-Sing-at-Night, Where-the-Whales-Leap-at-Dawn, and Among-the-Evergreens.

I’d looked into names like these and I did find various other forms of this in places like England (Sutton-under-Whitesontecliffe), France (Germain-de-Tallevende-la-Lande-Vaumont), and Italy (Pino sulla Sponda del Lago Maggiore) (in this case, these are all place-names).

I’m an editor for the Wings of Fire Wiki, where we are trying to create a section on an article that describes the naming patterns of the villages within the Ice Kingdom (where these villages are located) — technically, we don’t have confirmation that these names actually relate to the village itself. We can just speculate that Among-the-Evergreens is, well, among evergreens; however, speculation isn’t allowed on this wiki’s article pages. Ergo, the best we can really do is describe the syntax of the village names and not much else.

In total, I’m looking for an adjective that describes these names or a noun that represents these names. Compound words and phrases are acceptable.

Thanks in advance!

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